Consider the scenario wherein a content item, e.g., a television program or a video, is played out to an end-user of a data processing system. For example, the content item is being streamed or progressively downloaded from a server to the data processing system via a data network. As known, both streaming and progressively downloading are technologies that enable play-back of the content item to start as soon as enough data has been received at the client, i.e., before all data of the content item has been received. As another example, the content item is a television broadcast received via cable (in analog format or in digital format as in DVB-C) or via an aerial (in analog format or in digital format, such as DVB-T, DVB-S or DVB-H). The acronym “DVB-C” stands for “Digital Video Broadcasting-Cable” and refers to a standard for the broadcast transmission of digital television over cable. The acronym “DVB-T” stands for “Digital Television Broadcasting-Terrestrial” and refers to a standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television. The acronym “DVB-S” stands for “Digital Video Broadcasting-Satellite” and refers to satellite broadcasting. “DVB-S2” stands for “Digital Video Broadcasting-Satellite-Second Generation” and is an enhanced variant of DVB-S. The acronym “DVB-H” stands for “Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld” and refers to a standard of a mobile TV format.
The end-user may be interested in follow-up content items, e.g., semantically related to the item currently being played out or selected according to another pre-determined criterion. The follow-up content items are then proposed as the next items to be played out after the playing out of the current one has ended. As an example of such other pre-determined criterion, the end-user may have specified in advance that, upon having watched a content item belonging to one genre, he/she would like to watch a content item of another genre. For example, upon a news broadcast, the user is desperately in need of some content item that is even more bizarre or at least a bit more cheerful than real life, such as an episode of the Simpsons. When the playing-out of the current content item ends, a play-list of follow-up content items can be automatically presented to the end-user for selecting from among the listed follow-up content items. Upon selection, the play out of the selected follow-up content item starts. This follow-up content can be retrieved from, for instance, a Video-on-Demand (VoD) service. The playlist represents, e.g., certain broadcast programs available in an electronic program guide (EPG), programs available from web pages and indicated by their URI, etc. As known, in a DVB broadcast model, the EPG is communicated to the end-user's set-top box (STB). Within the jargon of DVB, the EPG is being referred to as the Broadcast Content Guide (BCG). The BCG lists the content items made available by the Service Provider.
For example, the end-user is watching a program broadcast via a DVB-C network. The follow-up content can retrieved from the Internet via the user's DSL (digital subscriber line) connection. As known, DSL refers to a technology that provides digital data transmission over the wires of a local telephone network. As another example, the end-user is watching mobile TV on a mobile device, e.g., a mobile telephone, via a DVB-H data network. Follow-up content items can be retrieved via a UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) network.
It is well known to electronically determine follow-up content items related to the content item currently being played out. For example, an electronic program guide (EPG) is a database of scheduled broadcasts that is accessible through a graphical user interface (GUI) displayed on the display monitor of a TV. The database enables the end-user to browse the listed broadcasts, to electronically search for relevant broadcast programs and select such program for watching or recording. A recommender may run on top of the EPG application. A recommender is a software application that automatically identifies broadcasts on the basis of a match between, on the one hand, the descriptions of the broadcasts made available in the EPG as metadata and, on the other hand, a user profile or a search request entered by the user via the EPG.
Assume that suitable one or more follow-up content items have been identified, based on one or more attributes of the content item being currently played out, and that a list of the follow-up content items is made available to the end-user for selecting the one to be played out next. Then, generally, there will be a relatively long start-up delay before the play-out of the follow-up content item actually starts. The delay stems from the fact that, before being able to play out the follow-up content information, the data processing system is to perform following operations: connecting to the resource making available the follow-up content item, negotiating transport mechanisms with the resource and retrieving enough data to allow an un-interrupted play-out. As to the latter operation: there needs to be a sufficient amount of data available in order to perform decoding and error-correcting. A long delay is annoying to the end-user, and may be perceived as a result of a poor service.
From another perspective, the end-user may wish to have played-out a follow-up content item, which requires a transfer rate that is higher than what the access network currently offers.
For instance, the end-user selects as the follow-up content item a High-Definition movie requiring a streaming bit rate of 6 Mbit/s, whereas his/her Internet connection only offers a capacity rate of 4 Mbit/s. This may imply that this user cannot watch this movie in real-time. Therefore, the long start-up delay and/or the limited capacity of the network connection prevent the user from having instantaneous playback of a selected follow-up content item.
US20090025054A1 discloses a method and system providing access to content. Providing access to content involves constructing a smart channel that facilitates adaptive content selection, identifying known content matching the smart channel content selection, performing a smart channel query to discover new content that is related to the known content, and prefetching newly discovered relevant content from a content space. The content includes video content for display on a display such as a TV.
US20030126600A1 discloses a content recommendation system that generates recommendations for new or upcoming content for a user while he/she may still consume a previous content. The system may take a wide variety of factors into account for determining the content recommendation and the moment rendering the recommendation whereby at least the progress of one of the previous and new content are taken into consideration.
EP1387583 discloses methods and software for building a personal channel schedule comprising i) receiving user preference information characterising a user's preferred programmes; ii) receiving programme descriptor information for broadcast programmes; iii) scoring the broadcast programmes based on the user preference information; iv) selecting a first programme using the results of the scoring and adding this to the schedule; v) identifying either earlier adjoining programmes which start after the end of the first programme or later adjoining programmes which finish before the start of the first programme; vi) scoring the adjoining programmes based on the user preference information; vii) selecting a second programme from the adjoining programmes using the results of scoring the adjoining programmes; viii) adding the second programme to the schedule; and ix) repeating steps (v)-(viii) to build up the schedule.
Jinsoo Han et al: “User-configurable Personalized Mosaic Electronic Program Guide” IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CONSUMER ELECTRONICS, IEEE SERVICE CENTER, NEW YORK, N.Y., US, VOL 54, NO. 1, 1 Feb. 2008 discloses a user-configurable personalized mosaic EPG Architecture.